Wealden Times | WT197 | July 2018 | Interiors supplement inside

Garden
Portrait of
a Garden
Jo Arnell shares her impressions of a year at Great Dixter,
one of the great gardens of England, inspired by a new
tribute by esteemed photographer Julian Anderson
Everchanging, always interesting, often breathtaking,
Great Dixter is a fascinating place to visit. Famous
for the giant Alice in Wonderland topiary, installed
by the father of its creator, the late Christopher Lloyd, it is
a place of floaty meadows and singing plant combinations,
all set off by Lutyens’ architecture and design.
For the last ten years in the care of world-renowned
head gardener Fergus Garrett – who joined Lloyd there
in 1992 and whose idea it was to put cactus and other
exotic plants into the once Edwardian garden – it’s
one of my own very favourite gardens to visit. I return
to it again and again and I’m always enthralled.
Eminent photographer Julian Anderson (who has 27
pictures in the permanent collection of the National Portrait
Gallery) was equally inspired and has spent a year taking
photographs as the weather and the light change through
the seasons. The results, some of which can be seen here,
are being gathered into a sumptuous, crowd-funded book.
“I’ve visited Dixter on a weekly basis, at different
times of day and in differing weather conditions, for
one calendar year,” he says. “The result is a series of
pictures chronicling Dixter’s evolving life, as seen
through the eye of a portrait photographer.”
As well as contextual shots of areas of the garden, Julian’s
pictures capture moments: small unfurlings, intimate
snapshots and minute effects. Many of these result from
changes in the weather. Touches of frost, mist, and slanting
rays of sunshine are beautifully recorded as the garden
drifts, shifts, bolts and blooms through the months.
Great Dixter is a garden that is magnificently in tune with
the seasons and no visit there is ever the same. There are
always new combinations of plants, exciting experiments
in border design, all held together by the constant - and
very characterful presence of the house and yew topiary.
Here are my own, very personal, impressions of a
year there.
137 wealdentimes.co.uk